OWER: 


Book   by  Lion  Feuchtrvanger 
BY  MARTIN  ZIELONKA 


TEMPLE  Mr.  SINAI 
EL  PASO,  TEXAS 


Stack 
Annex 


" 


POWER 


Book    by    Lion    Feuchtwanger 
By    Martin    Zielonka 

It  might  be  well  to  understand 
what  kind  of  a  man  Feuchtwanger 
the  author  of  "Power"  is  before  we 
consider  the  book.  After  all,  we  can 
learn  much  by  such  an  enterprise. 
When  asked,  "Do  you  consider  your- 
self a  Jewish  or  a  German  writer?" 
he  answered  —  "Neither,  but  an  in- 
ternational writer  whose  form  has 
been  determined  by  German  influ- 
ences while  his  mentality  is  Jewish." 
When  asked  about  prevailing  anti- 
semitism  his  answer  was  —  "It  would 
be  better  if  Jews  did  not  take  too 
much  notice  of  Anti-Semites.  We 
must  not  take  too  much  notice  of  - 
Jew  haters,  because  if  we  do  we  make 
them  feel  important."  And  when 
questioned  about  the  course  of  action 
for  the  Jew  scattered  over  the  world, 
his  answer  was  —  "The  essence  of  the 
Jewish  position  is  that  of  being  con- 
sidered an  intermediary  between  Eu- 
rope and  Asia,  between  Power  and 
Re  ignation.  I  have  tried  to  picture 
this  aspect  of  Jewish  destiny  in 
"Jew  Suess"  —  putting  a  man  between 
Power  and  i'.s  contrary  Resignation. 
It  is  the  fate  of  the  Jew  to  be  so 
placed  and  I  think  because  the  Asi- 
atic Influence  must  go  on  increas- 
ing in  the  world  that  the  position  of 
the  Jew  will  be  a  favorable  one;  he 
has  an  advantage  both  over  other 
Europeans  and  also  over  Asiatics. 
That  of  course  implies  a  cultural 
and  not  a  political  mission." 

This  statement  gives  us  the 
"theme"  of  Power,  the  book  we  want 
to  consider  tonight.  It  gives  ug  the 
thought  that  compelled  the  author 
in  the  writing  of  the  same  and  it  is 
therefore  the  thought  that  we  ought 
to  consider. 

What  attitude  should  the  Jew  take 
towards  the  persons  and  the  environ- 
ment into  which  he  has  been  born. 
Even  if  Zionism  were  realized  be- 
beyond  the  wildest  dreams  of  its 


most  enthusiastic  workers,  Zion  would 
only  supply  a  foothold  for  a  small 
percentage  of  the  Jews  of  the  world. 
The  overwhelming  majority  would  be 
forced  to  earn  a  livlihood  and  estab- 
lish homes  in  the  socalled  Golus 
lands.  This  being  a  fact,  then  the 
question  naturally  arises,  since  the 
Jew  will  always  be  a  small  minority 
in  the  vast  crowds  where  he  may 
make  his  home,  what  attitude  of  life 
should  he  assume  in  this  crowd?  For 
it  must  be  admitted  that  by  his  in- 
nate ability,  an  ability  forced  upon 
him  by  centuries  of  persecution,  he 
will  rise  above  the  level  of  his  sur- 
roundings. His  ability  as  a  trader 
will  assure  him  an  income  that  will 
not  only  meet  his  immediate  needs, 
but  will  give  him  sufficient  to  pur- 
chase some  of  the  luxuries  of  life, 
and  having  purchased  these  luxuries 
he  will  have  an  oppoi-tunity  to  display 
them  to  the  nublic  in  such  a  way  as 
to  arouse  envy  and  jealousy.  Having 
acquired  more  than  the  bare  neces- 
sities of  life  it  is  only  natural  that 
he  should  seek  to  lavish  these  upon 
his  family  and  allow  this  children  a 
higher  standard  of  living  and  cul- 
ture than  was  granted  to  the  mem- 
bers of  his  own  generation. 

Being  gifted  with  brain  power,  the 
inheritance  of  countless  generations 
of  Talmud  studying  forbears,  it  is 
only  natural  that  he  should  push  for- 
ward in  those  learned  professions, 
such  as  law  and  medicine,  where  indi- 
vidual initiative  joined  to  intensive 
training,  will  lead  him  to  leadership 
and  thus,  as  a  leader,  become  the  tar- 
get of  the  petty  spite  and  jealousy 
of  those  who  lack  this  native  ability 
cr  have  not  the  will-power  to  con- 
quer obstacles. 

Recognizing  these  facts  as  axioms 
(and  a  study  of  the  Jew  in  any  coun- 
try of  the  world  will  prove  them  ax- 
ioms) the  question  naturally  arises, 
shall  the  Jew  shun  these  possibili- 
ties of  a  broader  life,  or  to  put  it  in 
a  more  exact  form,  shall  he  hide  his 
potentialities  in  the  limited  circle  of 
his  co-religionists  or  blaze  them  forth 
to  the  world  at  large? 


His  success  will  give  him  Power, 
it  will  give  him  Position,  it  will  give 
him  a  Key  place  in  his  community, 
shall  this  be  used  quietly  or  shall  it 
be  paraded  and  thus  arouse  antag- 
onism? 

These  are  the  questions  that  Fe- 
uchtwanger  seeks  to  answer  and  he 
presents  the  two  possible  views  in  two 
contrasting  characters. 

Isaac  Simon  Landauer,  Court  Tre- 
osurer  of  the  Duchy  of  Wurtenberg, 
presents  one  answer.  He  is  a  man  of 
power.  He  is  the  intimate  of  nobles. 
They  come  to  him  for  loans  to  meet 
their  "debts  of  honor,"  even  as  gov- 
ernments come  to  him  to  get  money 
,  necessary  to  carry  on  wars.  He  is 
the  confidant  of  many;  they  have  full 
confidence  in  him;  they  trust  him 
with  their  fortunes,  knowing  that  he 
will  deposit  these  in  foreign  lands  out 
of  reach  of  zealous  government  offi- 
cials or  else  he  will  invest  these  ad- 
vantageously and  turn  over  the  pro- 
fits or  the  capital  as  they  may  de- 
sire. And  yet  he  does  not  show  him- 
self at  public  functions,  he  does  not 
accept  their  invitations  to  dine,  he 
does  not  meet  with  them  *o  discuss 
affairs  of  state.  He  is  the  power 
behind  the  throne  that  casts  no  shad- 
ow anywhere:  he  wears  the  clothes 
in  which  other  Jews  pass  along  the 
street:  he  wears  the  Jew-badge  pre- 
scribed by  law  and  even  if  he  did 
not  wear  these  he  would  be  recogniz- 
ed by  the  long-ear  locks  that  are  the 
badge  of  male  Jewry.  In  the  words 
of  our  author — "He  knew  that  there 
was  only  one  reality  in  the  world — 
money.  War  and  Peace,  life  and 
death,  the  virtue  of  women,  the 
Pope's  power  to  bind  or  to  loose, 
the  Estates  enthusiasm  for  liberty, 
the  purity  of  the  Augsburg  Confes- 
sion, the  ships  on  the  sea,  the  co- 
ercive power  of  princes,  the  Christ- 
ianizing of  the  New  World,  love,  pi- 
ety, cowardice,  wantoness,  blasphemy, 
and  virtue  they  were  all  derived 
from  money  and  they  would  all  turn 
to  money  and  they  could  all  be  ex- 
pressed in  plain  figures."  That  was 
his  philosophy  of  life  as  a  Jew,  liv- 
ing in  an  age  and  a  country  where 


the  Jew  had  no  rights  except  those 
that  he  purchased  and  where  he  did 
not  know  how  long  those  rights  might 
be  respected.  We  may  say  that  it  is 
not  a  very  exalted  philosophy  of 
life,  one  that  may  not  suit  our  en- 
vironment, but  it  was  a  real  prag- 
matic philosophy — it  worked.  As  he 
watched  his  friend  Reb  Joseph  Suss 
he  could  well  say  that  the  latter 
"did  not  understand  the  refined  pleas- 
ure of  keeping  power  secret,  of  poss- 
essing it  without  betraying  it  and  the 
still  more  refined  pleasure  of  relish- 
ing its  flavor  quietly  and  exclusive- 
ly by  oneself."  He  enjoyed  that 
"refined  pleasure"  and  he  would  not 
exchange  it  for  the  glamor  of  the 
court;  "he  relished  its  flavor"  even 
though  the  mob  "spat  upon  his  Jew- 
ish gaberdine." 

Representing  the  opposite  view 
point  was  Joseph  Suss  Oppenheimer, 
Chief  Mininster  of  Finance  of  the 
Palatinate  and  Treasury  Agent  of 
the  Spiritual  Princes  of  Cologne.  His 
philosophy  of  life  was  that  "a  Jew 
today,  if  he  only  set  about  it  in  a 
politic  manner,  could  sit  down  to 
table  with  great  noblemen.  Was  not 
his  great-uncle  the  Viennese  Oppen- 
heimer in  a  position  to  boast  in  the 
emperor's  presence  that  the  victory 
of  the  Imperial  arms  against  the 
Turks  was  in  a  great  part  due  to  this 
Jew's  assistance?" 

The  story  of  the  book  is  the  con- 
tinued contrast  between  these  two 
conceptions  of  Power. 

According  to  the  Jewish  Encyclo- 
pedia Joseph  Suss  Oppenheimer  was 
the  son  of  R.  Issacher  Susskind  Op- 
penheimer, a  singer  and  leader  of  a 
wandering  troupe  of  singers  and 
players,  and  Michele  the  daughter  of 
R.  Salomon  of  Frankfort  a/M.  He 
had  a  brother  and  sister;  who  em- 
braced Christianity  and  adopted  the 
name  Tauffenberger,  while  Joseph 
remained  faithful  to  Judaism,  re- 
sisted every  effort  to  force  him  to 
apostacy  and  died  with  the  Sh'ma  up- 
on his  lips. 

According  to  this  novel,  Joseph 
was  the  illegitimate  son  of  Baron 
and  Field  Marshall  Heydersdorff  and 


all  his  extravagances  should  be  trac- 
ed to  this  birth.  How  much  histori- 
cal matter  the  author  had  at  his  dis- 
posal that  was  not  at  the  disposal  of 
the  writer  of  the  article  in  the  Ency- 
clopedia I  do  not  know.  In  spite  of 
the  fact  that  Feuchtwanger  has  rec- 
ently said — "The  publication  of  the 
chief  Tuebingen  documents  of  the 
trial  of  the  Jew  Suess  was  forbidden 
under  the  Monarchy.  The  documents 
had  not  been  published  when  the 
book  was  written,  but  the  se  now  pub- 
lished make  the  presumption  very 
strong  that  he  was  the  Marshall's 
son" — in  spite  of  this  statement,  it 
seems  hardly  reasonable  that  he 
should  not  have  accepted  the  easy 
way  out,  apostasy,  just  as  his  brother 
and  sister  had  done,  if  he  felt  there 
was  any  doubt  about  his  Jewish  or- 
igin. It  seems  rather  more  reason- 
able to  believe  that  he  was  the  son 
of  a  wandering  singer  and  from  this 
singer  inherited  the  love  for  display 
even  as  Heine  inherited  the  same 
characteristic,  the  love  for  the  gaudy 
and  a  love  for  the  luxuries,  from  a 
father  of  like  temperament. 

I  shall  not  enter  into  the  story  of 
the  book.  It  is  that  of  a  swash- 
buckler Jew  who  takes  his  place 
among  the  nobility  and  arouses  their 
envy.  Of  one,  whose  financial  gen- 
ius brings  added  income  to  his  patron 
and  because  of  this  income  the  lat- 
ter overlooks  his  many  faults;  of  one 
who  devises  devious  methods  for 
increasing  this  income  when  addi- 
tional funds  are  needed  and,  by  these 
added  imposts,  increasing  the  jeal- 
ousy, discontent  and  rancor  of  the 
masses.  Be  it  a  monopoly  on  chim- 
ney-sweeping, wine  or  tobacco  handl- 
ing, he  knew  how  to  get  the  largest 
returns;  be  it  a  change  in  the  coin- 
age of  the  realm,  he  knew  how  to 
safe  guard  same  and  yet  make  the 
largest  profit;  be  it  the  sale  of 
offices  in  the  state,  he  knew  how  to 
wring  the  last  penny  from  every  ap- 
plicant, and  at  the  same  time  he  knew 
how  to  retain  the  confidence  of  his 
monarch  so  that  the  latter  issued  pub- 
lic decrees  announcing  to  the  public 
that  all  rumors  were  false  and  that 


his  confidence  in  his  financial  advisor 
was  unshaken. 

And  yet,  while  he  enjoyed  the  so- 
ciety of  the  court  and  especially  of 
the  women  of  the  court,  while  he 
proudly  took  his  place  with  the  not- 
ables, he  hid  away  in  an  obscure  place 
his  one  priceless  treasure,  a  young 
daughter,  who  was  growing  into 
young  womanhood.  He  did  not  want 
her  to  taste  of  Power;  he  wanted  her 
safeguarded  by  Resignation  to  a  life 
far  from  the  turmoil  of  life  and 
under  the  supervision  of  a  good  wom- 
an. She  was  the  apple  of  his  eye, 
and  to  her  he  fled  quietly  when  the 
howl  of  the  mob  rose  against  him. 
He  thought  she  was  safe,  but  the 
Duke  had  accidently  run  across  her 
on  his  wanderings  incognito.  He  had 
become  enamored  of  her:  he  wanted 
to  add  her  to  his  many  conquests  of 
women.  He  pursued  her  to  such  an 
extent  that  in  desperation  she  com- 
mitted suicide.  "Before  the  Duke, 
he  (Suss)  succeeded  in  being  cour- 
teous and  self-possessed.  Alone,  he 
splintered  like  a  piece  of  glass.  The 
Jew  was  too  much  for  him.  Again  the 
Jew  had  won.  The  child  was  dead. 
She  was  not  smirched,  defiled,  crush- 
ed: she  was  simply  dead:  she  had 
escaped  unsullied  and  from  the 
height  smiled  a  lovely  apparition.  The 
Jew  was  no  rediculous  crumpled 
beaten  pander  like  him,  the  Jew  was 
tragic,  almost  a  martyr,  his  jewel  was 
not  tarnished  and  beslimed." 

This  incident  changed  his  nature. 
He  was  a  beaten  man,  but  he  dare 
not  show  this  in  public.  The  secret 
urge  of  his  life  had  disappeared. 
There  was  no  longer  pleasure  in  the 
vanities  of  life.  And  so  when  oppos- 
ition again  rose  against  him,  he  had 
not  the  power  to  fight  back.  Being 
exonerated  by  his  monarch,  he  asked 
permission  to  resign  and  to  re. ire 
from  public  life.  The  scar  was  great- 
er than  he  could  bear.  But  before 
retiring,  his  monarch  asked  him  to 
spend  his  last  night  at  the  palace. 
And  then  another  tragedy  overtook 
him. 

During  that  night  the  Duke  be- 
came seriously  ill  and  finally  died. 


While  he  in  his  death  throes  Suss 
finally  gives  expression  to  his  inner- 
most thought.  He  speaks  to  the  dic- 
ing man,  so  that  he  may  know  this 
though! — "Duke!  Brute  and  simple- 
ton of  a  Duke!  Stupid,  block  head 
Karl  Alexander!  Now  you  would 
stop  your  ears,  wouldn't  you?  You 
would  like  to  clear  out  and  hear  no 
more?  You  would  like  to  pray  and 
get  absolution  from  your  confessor, 
and  have  the  oil  of  grace  trickled 
over  you?  But  I  won't  grant  you 
that.  I  won't  let  you  die  until  you 
have  listened  to  me.  Roll  your  eyes  as 
you  may,  and  rattle  your  lungs,  you'll 
have  to  listen !  I  am  speaking  quite 
low,  without  raising  my  voice,  but 
what  I  say  is  filling  your  ears  and 
your  shameless  vilent  heart.  And  you 
must  keep  quite  still  and  you  dare 
not  die  yet,  and  you  have  to  listen." 
The  crushed  heart  of  a  father  has 
thrown  all  precaution  to  the  wind.  He 
does  not  realize  his  own  jeopardy,  he 
does  not  see  what  a  queer  prank  fate 
has  played  him.  The  palace  is  in  a 
turmoil:  the  Duke  had  died  without 
benefit  of  clergy.  The  Jew  Suess  is 
the  first  to  realize  the  skua  ion  and  he 
turns  to  Major  Roder — "You  do  not 
see  quite  clearly,  Major,  what  is  to 
be  done  in  this  unusual  situation?" 
And  being  tired  of  life  and  its  pomp 
he  tells  him  "Arrest  me:  and  then  you 
are  safe  whoever  comes  out  ontop." 
Suess  is  arrested  for  the  death  of  the 
Duke:  all  the  Jews  of  Stuttgart  are 
arrested.  Suess  is  put  on  trial.  "They 
found  the  Jew  guilty  of  innumerable 
crimes  against  the  Duke."  "The  Jew 
must  hang"  was  the  formula  of  the 
prosecution.  "The  Jew  must  hang" 
was  thudered  in  parliament  and  its 
pulpits,  "The  Jew  must  hang"  roar- 
ed the  mob.  The  Duke  Regent  refers 
the  transcript  of  the  trial  to  Johan.i 
Daniel  Harprecht,  who  reported-- 
"that  the  accused  could  not  be  sen- 
tenced to  death  on  the  basis  of  the 
existing  laws  of  the  Roman  Empire 
and  of  the  Duchy:  What  he  had  un- 
lawfully acquired  should  be  confis- 
cated and  he  should  be  banished  from 
the  country."  "You  think  then  that 
the  Commission  has  sentenced  the 


Jew  rather  than  the  scoundrel?"  he 
is  asked  and  he  answers  "Yes."  The 
next  day  the  death  sentence  is  signed 
for  it  was  "better  to  hang  the  Jew 
unjustly  than  to  spare  his  life  just- 
ly and  have  more  trouble  brewing  in 
the  land. 

His  friends  seek  to  purchase  his 
release  by  repaying  all  losses  but  the 
offer  is  refused.  Opportunities  are 
given  to  him  to  escape  but  he  refuses. 
Life  holds  no  pleasure  for  him.  His 
jewel  had  been  taken  from  him:  he 
had  avenged  her  death  in  his  talk 
to  the  dieing  Duke:  he  was  ready  to 
die.  He  is  placed  in  a  cage  and  that 
cage  was  to  hold  his  body  as  it  was 
supended  in  the  air.  When  the  deed 
was  done  Karl  Rudolph  recognized 
that  it  was  judicial  murder  "I  had  to 
do  it.  I  am  ashamed  of  myself,  gen- 
tlemen," and  posterity  has  concur- 
red in  this  verdict. 

Perhaps  the  last  scene  is  best  de- 
scribed in  Feuchtwanger's  own  words 
— "Ihrough  the  empty  and  cruel 
hubbub  there  soared  another  sound, 
the  sound  of  loud  guttural  voices 
crying,  "One  and  Eternal  is  the  God 
of  Israel,  Jehovah,  Adonai,  the  Ever- 
lasting, the  Infinite.  It  is  the  Jews, 
the  small  Jaakob  Joshua  Falk,  the 
burly  rabbi  of  Furth,  the  shabby 
Isaac  Landauer.  They  are  standing 
wrapped  in  their  praying  cloaks, 
they  and  seven  others,  making  ten  as 
is  prescribed:  they  pay  no  heed  to  the 
crowd,  which  turns  their  eyes  away 
from  the  gallows  towards  them:  they 
sway  their  bodies  wildly  and  they 
stand  crying,  shrilling,  wailing,  the 
prayer  for  the  dying,  clear  over  the 
broad  square,  "Hear,  0  Israel,  One 
and  Eternal  is  Jehovah  Adonai."  The 
words  mount  from  their  lips  as  white 
vapor  in  the  strong  frost,  up  to  the 
ears  of  the  man  in  the  cage  and  the 
son  of  Marshall  Heydersdorff  opens 
his  mouth  and  cries  in  answer,  "One 
and  Eternal  is  Jehovah  Adonai." 

During  the  night  the  body  is  stol- 
en from  the  cage  and  another  is  sub- 
stituted. His  co-reiigionists  did  not 
want  the  body  mutilated  any  fur- 
ther. It  is  smuggled  to  Furth,  and 
there  laid  to  rest. 

8 


Thus  ends  the  story  of  one  of  those 
remarkable  characters  that  rise  now 
and  then  among  the  Jewish  people. 
Joseph  Suss  Oppenheimer,  who  re- 
mained a  Jew  but  did  not  desire  to 
suffer  the  restrictions  placed  upon 
the  Jews  of  his  day.  For  the  latter 
he  paid  the  penalty  and  from  his  life 
story  we  gain  an  insight  into  the 
proper  place  of  the  Jew  in  the  Go- 
lus  lands!  Shall  he  seek  Power,  and 
having  gained  it,  display  it  to  the 
world?  Or  shall  he  practice  Resig- 
nation, while  enjoying  "the  refined 
pleasure  of  keeping  power  secret,  of 
possessing  it  without  betraying  it  and 
the  still  more  refined  pleasure  of 
relishing  its  flavor  quietly  and  ex- 
clusively?" Is  it  the  destiny  of  the 
Jew  to  present  to  power-loving  Eu- 
rope, the  sublime  Resignation  of 
Asia  and  by  combining  the  two  pre- 
sent to  the  world  of  tomorrow  a  fin- 
er fruitage  than  it  has  known  here- 
tofore? That  is  the  question  we  must 
ask  ourselves  and  that  is  the  ques- 
tion we  must  put  to  every  follower 
of  our  faith  who,  by  his  I  ragging  and 
loud  living,  calls  in  question  the  gen- 
teelness  of  our  heritage.  Amen. 


UNIV.  OF  CALIF.  LIBRARY,  LOS  ANC 


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